On Thursday in class we discussed the performance of Cristina Gallardo-Domas as Cio-Cio-San in the Met’s current production of Madama Butterfly. While we all agreed that Gallardo-Domas has an incredible voice, some of us were distracted by her very expressive and dramatic body movements throughout the performance.

For comparison’s sake, here are two video clips, one of Cristina Gallardo-Domas singing "Un bel di vendremo" in 2003 and the second of opera legend Renata Tebaldi singing the same piece in the late 1950s. Let us know what you think.

When you want to stop the Billy Joel music, just press the green pause button on the lefthand columnn of the blog (if you look on the left, you’ll see the heading “Sweet Tunes”, under that heading you will see a green play/pause button, just press pause and the music will stop). Thanks!